


The Time Traveler's Guilt

by Kelette



Series: Tales of the Time Witch [1]
Category: Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Series
Genre: Angst, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 20:43:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11676729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelette/pseuds/Kelette
Summary: Cless, Mint, and Chester return to the present to begin the next part of their journey. Arche has been waiting for them for 100 years with both a surprise and a crushing amount of guilt.





	The Time Traveler's Guilt

Arche stood behind a tree, watching the group approach. She knew they would be coming this way. This was how Cless left his hometown, so this is how he would choose to return. 

She twisted the broom in her hands as she listened to their familiar chatter. Her breath became tighter with each heartbeat, the guilt squeezing her lungs shut. 

“Are you really sure you want to come with us, Mint?”

“Damn it, Cless, you’ve already asked her this a million times since we got back to this time. Her answer is yes.”

Mint gave a gentle chuckle. “Chester’s right. I want to help you two restore Toltus --or I guess we’re going to call it Miguel?” 

Arche forced herself to exhale. It sounded like a sigh. But a sigh would have indicated relief.

The sword rung as Cless pulled it out of his scabbard. “Who’s there?”

Arche wanted to laugh. It had been so many years she had nearly forgotten how sharp Cless’ senses were. But wanting to laugh made her want to cry. 

Instead, she silently stepped out from behind the tree.

Cless lowered his point immediately. “Arche? What are you doing here?”

Arche’s eyes prickled with tears. “I waited so many years to see you guys again, and this is how you greet me?” She tried placing a hand on her hip in mock anger, but it felt flat to her. Everything felt flat.

“Arche!” Mint ran forward to embrace her. “You’re here. We were wondering how we were going to find you.”

Arche stiffened. She pulled away without thinking about it.

“Is something wrong?” Cless asked, approaching her as well.

Arche wondered how she could explain. Cless and Mint were too good and innocent. Her eyes glanced over to Chester, who had gone still and pale. His eyes were slowly narrowing.

Chester was not too innocent. It wasn’t until this moment, but Arche could see that he was starting to understand.

Arche stepped further away from Cless and Mint. “I don’t know how to apologize.” Her gaze fell to the ground, her hands tightened around her broom. She wasn’t going to take off (probably), in that moment it was actually grounding her.

“Apologize for what? Arche, you haven’t done anything wrong,” Cless tried to assure her.

Arche grit her teeth. She stepped her legs apart and glared at Cless. “Don’t you get it? I was here!”

Cless and Mint’s stares were blank. Chester’s eyes continued to narrow.

“I was here! I didn’t disappear when I went to the past. From that moment on until now, I existed. I’ve been here. When Mars attacked Toltus, I was here, with the power to cast indignation and meteor storm, the power necessary to destroy Dhaos. You know who I didn’t destroy? Mars.” Arche couldn't stand it anymore. She was crying for real now. “You know who I didn’t save?” 

Mint’s face had lowered to the ground and Arche’s tear-blurred vision couldn’t make out Mint’s expression. 

Cless frowned slightly. “You feel guilty… because Toltus was attacked and you did nothing to save it?”

Arche nodded. She rubbed her gloved wrists against her face, trying to mop away her sloppy tears. “You and Chester went so far for your vengeance against Dhaos… You should hate me just as much, because I didn’t do anything to stop Dhaos or Mars.”

“Why?” Cless asked. His voice wasn’t accusative (yet), just lost. 

Arche pressed her fists into her eyes. “It was inevitable. Mars had to destroy Toltus so that you would travel to the past on your quest for vengeance. Otherwise, we never would have met. It had to happen.”

Arche had spent the last 100 years working inch by inch to stabilize time, so that everything looped around like it was supposed to.

She had studied and worked so hard to ensure the world’s timelines were balanced, and saving Toltus would have destroyed that balance. She had to let Toltus be destroyed.

“You let everyone die just because you didn’t want to be forgotten?” Chester asked, his voice dangerously dark.

Arche had known that Chester would be the first (if not the only) one to get angry at her. She thought she might have enough time to explain, to justify her negligence, or to share her single sin. Instead she spun onto her broom and flew away. 

Chester might forgive her once he learned what she had done, but somehow it had made her guilt about Cless and Mint worse.

Arche’s thoughts went to her ribbon that tied back her hair. It was black. She started wearing it in memory of Klarth after he had passed away. In the sadness that her friend and journeying companion was gone forever. Her earrings were also black (in honor of Rhea, also gone forever). 

After Klarth had died, she went through his summoning books. She learned about summoning spirits, completing her knowledge on channeling the dead, and then moved on to necromancy. 

Arche landed just outside of Toltus, at the little camp she had made. She looked up as a little girl plodded up to her. “Arche! Where were you?”

Arche forced a smile on her face for the girl. “I’m sorry for leaving you alone Ami, but I have good news.”

Ami’s face immediately lit up with hope. “Is Chester coming home?”

Arche nodded. “Uh huh, soon.” She glanced behind her. Certainly, the trio had chased after her when her words had failed.

Necromancy hadn’t been necessary for Ami --Arche couldn’t let Ami die in the first place. (She knew what death did to people. She had channeled Rhea, after all). It did allow her to create a highly convincing corpse. If Chester had thought that Ami died, then the timelines remained unchanged and everything remained balanced… or so Arche hoped.

“Arche! Would you please stay and talk?”

Ami perked up at the voice, recognizing it with more ease than Arche did. Arche hadn’t seen Cless in one hundred years --for Ami it had only been a couple of weeks.

“Cless!” she called out. 

Arche turned to see Cless’ expression as he focused on the small girl. He mouthed her name, his eyes growing wide. He froze for a moment and then spun around. “Chester! Chester get over here now!”

Mint joined up with them, gasping for breath. “Oh, hello,” she said when she saw Ami. 

Ami nodded shyly in response. “Is Chester here? Is he coming?”

“He wasn’t running like we were,” Mint said, glancing up at Arche in confusion. She didn’t know who Ami was.

Arche flinched. Of course Chester wouldn’t run after her. He thought that she let Ami die. Instead she had just let everyone else die. She thought her guilt might be less if she had let Ami die with the rest --because now she wondered if she couldn’t have saved everyone. (She couldn’t, she reminded herself. It took all of her skill just to save Ami --and that had been hard. It required Ami’s cooperation and the girl did not trust her at first).

Chester approached, not looking ahead, lost in what was likely dark thoughts.

“Chester!”

Chester froze while Ami darted forward. When she was within reach he crouched down, practically collapsing on her while pulling her into a hug.

“You saved Ami,” Cless finally said, his back to Arche as he watched Chester.

“I could only save one person.” It sounded like an excuse. It was her reason why she hadn’t saved Mint’s mom, or Cless’ parents.

“Arche,” Cless turned around, his face was serene. “You saved Ami. I don’t know how to thank you.” 

Mint was smiling softly too. Both of their faces were hurt with sadness, but neither was angry. They were just grateful for this one piece of happiness that Arche had given to Chester.

Arche buried her face in her hands again. Her guilt threatened to overwhelm her. She wished at least one of them had gotten mad at her. Sometimes she wondered if that was why she had chosen to save Ami --because she knew Cless and Mint were too good to hold it against her.

She would feel less guilt if she had just let Ami die.

**Author's Note:**

> I could just never understand why, if Arche is aging her way to the present, she was completely absent from the present and future timelines. (And, if she existed in the present timeline with memories of her journey, wouldn't she want to save Toltus? Or at least Ami?) Arche is by far the most interesting Phantasia character to me. Anyway. I use the older/Japanese official translations of the casts' names because I can't kick that habit.
> 
> I'm trying to improve my writing, so concrit is welcome!


End file.
